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Irony In The Necklace By Guy De Maupassant

Decent Essays

The Necklace by Guy de Maupassant is a story about class conflict. The short story is about a middle class woman named Mathilde Loisel. She was born into a family of clerks and then proceeded to marry a clerk. Despite being born and married into poverty, Loisel wishes nothing more than to be rich. One day, her husband offers her the chance to go to the palace for an event. After denying to wear her dress she wears to the theater, she talks him into giving her four hundred francs to buy a new dress. Her husband then gives her the idea to borrow some jewelry from one of her wealthy friends. Madame Forestier lets Loisel borrow a beautiful necklace that Loisel believe to be worth a lot of money. At the end of the night, Loisel realizes she has lost the necklace. The underlying theme that the author uses symbolism and irony to portray in this story is that a person should love who they are and what they have.

Mathilde was a very greedy woman. She was not below the poverty line, nor was she homeless. She could have …show more content…

They have to spend 10 years working to pay off all of their debts. Loisel had to take up housecleaning and her husband worked all day and night. After the 10 years are up, Loisel runs into Forestier on the street. Loisel who has aged remarkably from all the hard work is not even recognized by Forestier at first. Loisel finally confesses to losing the necklace and just replacing it with another diamond necklace. Forestier ends up telling Loisel that the necklace she lost was made of paste and worth around only 500 francs. The necklace shows a lot of symbolism to Loisel. Loisel tried so hard to look wealthy that one night that ruined her life. She may have looked beautiful and wealthy, but still she was poor underneath all of the fancy clothing and jewelry. The necklace, which looked beautiful and expensive, turned out to just be

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